Seven jailed over death of linesman

LELYSTAD, NETHERLANDS – A Dutch court Monday jailed six teenage boys and a father for up to six years for brutally beating to death an amateur linesman in a case that shocked the soccer-mad nation.

Richard Nieuwenhuizen, 41, died following an attack by enraged youth players after officiating in a match near Amsterdam in which one of his sons was playing. A total of seven young suspects, aged 15 to 17 at the time, and the 51-year-old adult were charged with manslaughter, public violence and brutality.

The only adult, also the father of one of the accused, Hasan D., was jailed for six years, while five teens were sent to youth detention units for the maximum of two years, with six months suspended.

A sixth adolescent, aged 15, was sent to a youth detention unit for a year with two months suspended. The seventh, also 15, was acquitted.